Iskandar Ismail

Iskandar Mirza Ismail (23 July 1956 – 1 November 2014) was a prominent Singaporean musician who worked as a composer, arranger, conductor, music director, recording producer, performer and educator in his long career. In recognition of his extensive contributions to the music scene of Singapore, he was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 2008.[1]

Iskandar Ismail
Birth name	Iskandar Mirza Ismail
Born	(1956-07-23)23 July 1956
Origin	Singapore
Died	1 November 2014(2014-11-01) (aged 58) Singapore
Genres	Pop, instrumental, world, orchestral
Occupation(s)	Composer, conductor, producer, performer, educator
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1975–2014
Associated acts	Jeremiah Choy, Dick Lee

Early years

Iskandar was the eldest of five children born to Singaporean musicians Ismail Kassim and Nona Asiah. His mother, a singer and protégé of Zubir Said, saw the musical talent in Iskandar and sent him to Zubir for weekly music lessons from the age of 8.[2] Iskandar later studied the electone and eventually won first prize at the Singapore Electone Festival in 1975. At the age of 15, he became the youngest teacher at the Yamaha Music School in Singapore.

Encouraged by Zubir, Iskandar decided to study music at Berklee College of Music in 1976, where he won the John Lewis Jazz Masters Award for his excellence in jazz music in 1978. A year later, he graduated with a degree in Professional Music.[3]

Career

One of Iskandar’s musical signatures was his prominent use of motivic development. Thematically, he often blended influences from Eastern and Western musical cultures, and composed music from numerous genres such as classical, pop, and folk music.[4] Despite the fact that he did not speak Chinese, Iskandar wrote and produced songs for Chinese artistes when Warner Taiwan engaged his music studio for over 15 years. This led him to work with numerous Hong Kong artists including Sandy Lam, George Lam, Sally Yeh, Aaron Kwok, and Jacky Cheung.[5]

Iskandar collaborated with other Asian artistic talents like Dick Lee, Anita Sarawak, and Ekachai Uekrongtham. He was the arranger for prominent local stage musicals such as Kampung Amber (1994), Sing to the Dawn (1996), Snow. Wolf. Lake (1997), and Chang & Eng (1997).[4]

Achievements

Musical accomplishments

Since the 1980s, following his graduation from Berklee, Iskandar composed music for more than 10 opening and closing ceremonies of the Singapore Youth Festival. The year 1988 saw the first of his many musical directions of the National Day Parade. In addition to writing for the annual Chingay street parade held as part of the Lunar New Year celebrations, Iskandar also wrote music for the inaugural editions of the Asian Youth Games in 2009 and Youth Olympic Games in 2010, held in Singapore.[6]

Iskandar’s music took him beyond the shores of Singapore on numerous occasions, often as part of Singapore's cultural diplomacy platform Spotlight. He also took charge of the musical production and direction for the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.[5]

On top of his professional accomplishments, Iskandar was an advocate of nurturing future generations of Singaporean artists. He participated in the annual ChildAid charity concert by Singapore Press Holdings to raise funds for the Budding Artists Fund.[7] After becoming the music director for the National University of Singapore Jazz Band in 2006, Iskandar strived to inspire young amateur jazz musicians and create performance opportunities to showcase their talent.[4]

Awards

Year	Achievement
1975	Second prize winner at the Yamaha Electone Festival in Singapore.
1978	Winner of the John Lewis Jazz Masters Award at Berklee College of Music.
2003	Winner of Berita Harian Achiever of the Year Award.[4]
2007	Awarded Honorary Fellowship, London College of Music, Thames Valley University, United Kingdom.
2008	Recipient of the Singapore Cultural Medallion for Music.

Selected works

Musicals

Year	Title
1994	Singapore Festival of Arts musical Kampung Amber with Dick Lee.[8]
1995	Big Bang!, composed by Kenneth Lyen. Mortal Sins, composed by Dick Lee.
1996	Sing to the Dawn, composed by Dick Lee. Hotpants, composed by Dick Lee.
1997	A Twist of Fate, composed by Dick Lee. Snow. Wolf. Lake. Chang & Eng.
1999	Chang & Eng restaged at the Kallang Theatre.
2000	PCK The Musical. President’s Star Charity Show.
2001	Chang & Eng restaged at Victoria Concert Hall.
2002	Composed songs for the opening of the Esplanade Theatre.
2006	ChildAid, Singapore Press Holdings charity concert for young talent.
2008	Beauty World, staged at the Esplanade Theatre.[9]
2009	ChildAid, Singapore Press Holdings charity concert for young talent, performed at Resorts World Sentosa.[10]
2012	ChildAid, Singapore Press Holdings charity concert for young talent, performed at Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre.[11]

International works

Year	Description
1997	Orchestral arrangements for musical Chang & Eng, staged in Beijing, China.
2002	Orchestral arrangements for musical Chang & Eng, staged in Bangkok, Thailand.
2004	Orchestral arrangements for musical Snow. Wolf. Lake, staged in Mandarin in Hong Kong and several cities of China.
2006	Commissioned Music Producer for the opening ceremony of the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, with Dick Lee. Composer of multicultural performance Generation/s, performed in Tokyo, Japan, as part of Spotlight Singapore.
2008	Composer for multicultural performance Generation/s, performed in Moscow, Russia, as part of Spotlight Singapore.
2011	Composer for multicultural performance Selamat, performed in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of Spotlight Singapore.
2012	Composer for multicultural performance Living Dreams, performed in Bratislava, Slovakia, as part of Spotlight Singapore.
2015	Co-composer with Julian Wong for Pasar Singapura, performed in Mexico City, Mexico, as part of Spotlight Singapore (presented posthumously).[12]

Death

Iskandar passed away on 1 November 2014 after an extended battle with brain and lung cancer, leaving behind his wife Ernawaty Sorainto (married 1985) and two children, Emil Daruwin (born 1986) and Valerie (born 1987).[13]

References

1. Lee, Kim (1 October 2013). "Keeping The Good Times Rolling". Singapore International Foundation. Singapore. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
2. Zubir, Rohana (2012). Zubir Said: The Composer of Majulah Singapura. Singapore Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 9814311812.
3. "Veteran composer is Achiever of the Year" (Press release). Singapore Press Holdings. 6 August 2003. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
4. Gwee, Monica (2013). Iskandar Ismail: The Music Man. Epigram Books. ISBN 9789810768881.
5. "Singapore musician Iskandar Ismail dies of lung and brain cancer". TODAY Online. Mediacorp Press Ltd. 1 November 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
6. Robert, Catherine (1 November 2014). "Composer Iskandar Ismail dies. Celebs, including Mr Brown, pay tribute to a Singapore talent". The New Paper. Singapore. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
7. "ChildAid 2006: The hunt for Singapore´s Top Youth Talents Kicks Off" (Press release). Singapore: The Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings. 4 August 2006. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
8. "One Young Talent, 25 years of Singapore Musicals" (Press release). Singapore: The Business Times Budding Artists Fund. Singapore Press Holdings. 10 January 2012. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
9. "Beauty World". W!ld Rice. Retrieved 2016-12-11.
10. "ChildAid to be FIRST event held at Resorts World at Sentosa" (PDF) (Press release). Singapore: Resorts World Sentosa. Genting Group. 14 July 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
11. Ang, Yiying (19 November 2012). "Holding his hand". The Straits Times. Singapore. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
12. "PASAR SINGAPURA: A Musical Exchange of Two Cities". Temasek. Singapore. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
13. Quek, Eunice (1 November 2014). "A great loss: Iskandar Ismail fondly remembered as a good-natured legend of the music scene". The Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings. Retrieved 6 December 2016.

External links

• Iskandar Ismail on Facebook